Getting paid to fly the Martin Mars? At 83, Ocean City resident Andy Serrell still marvels at the concept. Behind the controls of the seaplane, so big a mechanic could crawl through the wings to tinker midflight and more than 300 passengers once packed into the cabin for a record-breaking trip, Serrell is still the envy of his aviation club.
“It rates number one because of the nostalgia,” Serrell said. “It was amazing.”
Serrell proudly flew the last scheduled flight of a famed Martin Mars seaplane, a California-to-Hawaii trip at the end of the Korean War. Now, the last two remaining Mars seaplanes are on the auction block and supporters at the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum in Middle River, where the planes were built in the 1940s, are scrambling to come up with cash to bring a piece of history home.
The availability of the planes surprised local aviation enthusiasts, who said they expected another decade to pass before the planes? current owner, TimberWest, a British Columbia-based company that?s been using the seaplanes to fight forest fires, retired them.
They got the news three weeks ago and this week launched a grass-roots campaign to raise as much money as possible by Jan. 31. The minimum scrap value alone is estimated between $80,000 and $100,000, and the trip back to Maryland could cost upward of another $100,000, said Stan Piet, the museum?s archives director.
Piet said TimberWest also will consider what bidders intend to do with the planes. That, he said, might give the museum an advantage.
“We?ve got a better hope here,” Piet said. “They would be on display for hundreds of thousands of people to see.”
The acquisition of one of the planes ? the largest seaplane ever to serve the military and the namesake of the locally owned Mars supermarket chain ? would be a major attraction for the museum and a catalyst for its expansion, officials said.
While not contributing financially, Baltimore County officials said the acquisition could bolster tourism in the Middle River area and are donating logistical support to help “get out the word.”
“We all really have our fingers crossed because it would be a great coup for the museum and for the whole community,” County Executive Jim Smith said.
